Aerocool's budget CPU cooler looks like it was inspired by running a Founders Edition through a bandsaw

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Two Aerocool Apnx AP1-V CPU coolers on display at Computex 2024 — (Image credit: Future)

When it comes to cooling your gaming PC's CPU, there's no shortage of options out there. From massive 420 mm liquid AIO setups to low-profile, whisper-quiet blocks, there's something for every budget and heat demand. Sometimes, though, all you want is a cooler that's suitable for lots of processors but isn't too large or too flashy. If that's you, then the Aerocool Apnx AP1-V might just be what you need.

At first glance, it does look a bit like Aerocool's engineers took an Nvidia Founders Edition graphics card and ran it through a bandsaw, slicing it all down to size. But there's also a little bit of the DeepCool Assassin IV to it, with that aluminium shell surrounding the cooling fins.

However the looks were decided upon, I have to say that I rather like the clean, almost clinical appearance of Aerocool's AP1-V, especially the white version. These days I've really toned down how much RGB lighting I use, but I'd be happy to use with what's on offer here.

There again, there's not much use having a CPU cooler that looks great, if it doesn't actually do a good job of things. The spec sheet states that it's good for 245 W of heat, which is fine for the most power-hungry AMD Ryzen chip but less so for the maximum power of Intel's best Core i7 and i9 processors (which is 253 W).

If you browse through the pictures above, you'll spot it inside an Aerocool Apnx V1 case. Compared to the Klevv RAM sticks, which are 137 mm in length, you can easily tell that it's using a 120 mm fan for cooling and given that there's just one of them, I don't think it's going to be a particularly quiet cooler under full load.

The AP1-V was actually launched last year and I don't think Aerocool have updated it for Computex. There have been relatively few independent reviews of it to confirm whether it is actually noisy. I prefer using 140 mm fans throughout all of my PCs as they spin at a lower rate than 120 mm, for the same volume of airflow. That makes them quieter and less 'pitchy' in noise.

At least it's not an especially expensive cooler. Both colours sell for around $50 on Amazon, although at that price sector, you might as well get the Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE, which is just $34 on Amazon for the RGB version. That's a more capable cooler, thanks to its twin fans and larger fin stack, though it doesn't look quite as nice nor as compact.

While I wouldn't pick the Aerocool Apnx AP1-V for a top-end Intel gaming PC, I'd probably be willing to give it a go in a compact Ryzen system, thanks to the lower power consumption of AMD's chips. Fit an AMD Radeon graphics card in there too and you could then claim you were getting one over Nvidia by chopping up one of its graphics cards to use it as a CPU cooler.

Nick, gaming, and computers all first met in the early 1980s. After leaving university, he became a physics and IT teacher and started writing about tech in the late 1990s. That resulted in him working with MadOnion to write the help files for 3DMark and PCMark. After a short stint working at Beyond3D.com, Nick joined Futuremark (MadOnion rebranded) full-time, as editor-in-chief for its PC gaming section, YouGamers. After the site shutdown, he became an engineering and computing lecturer for many years, but missed the writing bug. Cue four years at TechSpot.com covering everything and anything to do with tech and PCs. He freely admits to being far too obsessed with GPUs and open-world grindy RPGs, but who isn't these days?